Perry County sculptor Greg Harris worked last week to install a stone nameplate over the entrance to a county church.

PHOTO: Vince Luecke

Harris, who has gained renown for his work on a large Celtic cross at Rocky Point, a bust of Gov. Edgar Whitcomb and other projects, said the stone he completed complements the craftsmanship used to build the 1800s stone church. “It’ll certainly outlast all of us,” he said. While working on the church Thursday, Harris talked about the details sculptors and stone masons can glean from old stone buildings, including how quickly the stones were laid and even the ethnic backgrounds of the masons.

German and Irish masons did small things differently, such as adding drip edges to stones under windows and varied in the attention they gave to joints between stones. “Here we are more than 100, sometimes 150 years, later looking at what they did and learning about them,” Harris said. “It still amazes me.” St. Mark observed the 150th anniversary of its founding this summer and its pastor, the Rev. Dennis Duvelius, said he opted for the German script over the church’s stone lentil to honor the German heritage of the parish. “Many of our own parishioners are unaware that the national Catholic directory still lists St. Mark's as an ethnic German parish,” he said.